Chocolate
by something-wild-cat
Summary: "I guess it's always a way to say thank you. But it can be something else too." — Gifts of chocolate were always a tradition between certain teams of Sentai. But something darker is behind the recent deliveries of cellophane-wrapped, sugar-coated treats. — [Goseiger, Shinkenger, ToQger]
1. Chapter 1: Salt

_Summary: "I guess it's always a way to say thank you. But it's something else too." — Gifts of chocolate_ _were always a tradition between certain teams of Super Sentai. But something darker is behind the recent deliveries of cellophane-wrapped, sugar-coated treats. — [Goseiger, Shinkenger, ToQger]_

 _Disclaimer: I'm…pretty sure I don't own Super Sentai. I'm also pretty sure that Toei does. {In all seriousness, no copyright infringement intended, at all.}_

 _Raw, unbeta'd, and (perhaps unfortunately) influenced by a dark love for sweets._

 _Super Sentai crossover requested by_ retro mania _. I tried my best. Hope you enjoy._

* * *

 **CHOCOLATE**

* * *

Salt

 _When they found Alata unconscious, wounded and sprawled across the floor with jellybeans spilling from his hands and a chocolate strawberry candy shoved in his mouth – not quite melted – their first reaction was to question why Eri would have gone so overboard forcing her fellow Skick angel to eat her favorite sweets. Except there was one problem with their theory. Eri wouldn't do that. She just wouldn't. And her candy supply, which had been freshly restocked the day before, was absolutely untouched._

—{~}—

"Oniichan, it's cold."

"You're acting like I don't know that." Agri turned the page of his book, not even glancing up to greet his sister. The lamp beside the door of the observatory allowed enough light to make out enough words to read, but he was grateful for the beam of golden light that the open door offered. The night was especially black tonight; the contrast between light and dark in the light of the full moon complemented a beautiful view of the stars.

Moune rolled her eyes at him, hopping down to sit on the step beside him. The sound of salt on the sidewalk gritted beneath her shoes as they hit the pavement, and as she sat down she stretched, as if the cold didn't bother her. "We're all worried about him, you know. The least you could do is help." She paused. "Even Hyde came back from investigating to help."

Agri bit his lip and quickly turned the next page in an effort to pretend he didn't care. "I just get in the way. I'm a fighter; I'm not a strategist; I'm not a healer. I'm a Landick. And when it comes to healing, I. Don't. Interfere. With. Eri."

Moune's elbow hit him in the ribs and he jumped, leaning away from her. "And I'm not a Landick?" she shot back at him, next attempting to take away his book (he subsequently shifted uncomfortably to the other side of the step and turned away from her). "Look, Alata isn't going to get any better if you don't help. We don't care if you get in the way."

When he still gave no reaction, she stood, offering him her hand. "It's not normal for one of us to turn up almost dead from candy. It's not normal for Alata to be like this. You of all people should want to help him recover."

He finally took her hand, pulling himself to his feet and tucking his book under his arm. "So who do you think did it?" he asked, in an effort to keep up the talking.

Moune shrugged as she slid back into the building, her brother following close behind. "Datas didn't have a clue. It's not a Yuuma Beast… Can't possibly be Warstar… Though he was sure it wasn't the Matorintis, apparently…" The yellow angel's lips curled into a small pout as she closed the door, and Agri took the chance to give his sister a quick hug as she finished. "No one knows."

—{~}—

"He's so pale…" Nozomu couldn't seem to tear his eyes off the red Skick angel, who looked small and pale buried in a nest of blankets on the sofa in the main room. Agri couldn't blame him; he too was keeping a close eye on Alata, and Eri sitting by him.

Hyde, focusing very intently on examining his thumbnail, replied from the other side of the room. "Non-lethal poison to put him out of the fight. If it was a monster, it wouldn't surprise me. And a lack of oxygen. He's a Skick, so he needs more of it than some of us. It really affects him when he doesn't get enough."

Eri nodded in agreement as she stood up to look for her hairband. "He's sensitive to it, but he's just sleeping. He'll be fine soon enough." Finding the pink loop, she reached up to tie her hair back once again. "I'll watch over him for a little while, though. Can't be too sure right now." Hesitating again, she glanced fleetingly around the room. "Towel...Band-Aids…" she muttered to herself as she got back to work.

Agri could see the others nodding in agreement, and he bit back a yawn as he straightened. "All we needed right now is this, though."

Datas' communicator beeped at that moment, and everyone sans Alata turned to stare. Finally, slowly, Hyde voiced what they were probably all thinking. "At this hour? Is it Master Head?"

Datas didn't say anything (which answered Hyde's last question quite easily: No), and simply tapped the button that would allow them to hear the message.

There was static for a moment, and then a brief silence when it had cleared. "The Gosei Angels, am I right?" The voice was sudden, clear and soft. Slightly nervous. Familiar.

"Mako-san?" Eri was the one to answer her fellow Pink, though she had to call from where she was still standing near Alata. The young angel stirred when Eri raised her voice, and she quickly moved away from him and closer to Datas. "Something's wrong, then," she guessed, when there was another awkward silence and a moment of shuffling, like people moving quickly around.

"Ah…" Mako's hesitation confirmed it before she even continued. "Yes. Could you just…get here quickly, please. Eri."

"Eri can't go, though," Moune hissed, hopefully too quiet for Mako to hear. "What about Alata?"

"I'll go," Hyde volunteered immediately, causing Agri to (not very subtly) bite back a clear want to go as well. "Eri, you're getting rest. Agri, you too. You both look exhausted. Moune can watch Alata. Mako-san," he addressed the pink samurai again, "What exactly is going on?"

Mako's voice sounded strained after Hyde had finished speaking, putting an end to any bickering that may have arisen from the Seaick angel's orders. "I can send Chiaki over to your place. As an extra hand. Just get here quickly." There was a brief pause, and then static as she cut the call, not giving them an extra chance to point out that she had never answered the question.

—{~}—

The blankets surrounding him were cold for some reason, and yet he was so warm. Even the metal wing pendant on his necklace, usually cold no matter what temperature his body was, was stuck to his chest and the same temperature as himself. He wished his jacket wasn't so uncomfortable, and he wanted to squirm and adjust himself into a more comfortable position.

He kept his movements to a minimum though, and kept his eyes shut tight. _Wake up, Alata_. Was that his own voice? It must be.

Even with his brain moving at the speed of molasses - melted chocolate was more like it, he realised as he could sense the sickeningly sweet smell somewhere in the room - he was aware someone was watching, and he was careful to make any movements look like a fitful dream. Oh yes, he had heard his teammates talking after Mako, ShinkenPink, had ended the call; he'd heard most of the conversation, in fact, even if it had taken him a very long time to process it. So why hadn't he opened his eyes, said something to let them know he was going to be alright?

Because he didn't want the shadows to know that he had caught on.

He knew there was someone behind this, because the hand that had forced a half-melted candy into his throat - slightly tinted with salt, and smeared with a streak of chocolate - was not that of a monster's. Too smooth, too familiar, too… _human_. And a human was much smarter than a monster; Alata knew the moment they knew he'd caught on, things would escalate.

 _Wake up, Alata. Please?_

He just wanted to keep his team safe, he thought as the taste of chocolate in his mouth faded, and suddenly he could feel salt stinging his lips. He'd pretend to wake up after he thought about his attacker a little more.

* * *

 _I_ _love you as much as people love salt_.

— "Salt in Dishes," Romanian Fairy Tale —


	2. Chapter 2: Alexandrite

Alexandrite

 _When they found Takeru unconscious, wounded and stretched across the desk with ink spilling from his hands and a half-finished kanji scrawled across a piece of paper stuck to his forearm – not quite dry – their first reaction was to question why Mako had gone so far to please her lord, and why Takeru had even risked touching her cooking. Except there was one problem with their theory. The strawberry candy in Takeru's mouth just wasn't something Mako would cook for her lord. It just wasn't. Mako hadn't been seen in the kitchen for days anyway._

—{~}—

Chiaki avoided the creaky floorboards in the hall, opting for the longer way around to the courtyard. It would allow him to avoid Takeru's room anyway, where Mako and the kuroko were taking care of him. "Lack of oxygen," someone had claimed, but Chiaki wasn't an idiot. He'd seen the tinted pallor of their lord's skin, and it wasn't just blue from close asphyxiation.

Though he'd shown rebellious colors towards Takeru at first, openly defying him for just calling himself Chiaki's lord, Chiaki found he'd grown to like serving the head of the Shiba Clan. He certainly didn't wish him to die, no matter how jerkish he'd been.

The soft sound of a flute on the steps of the courtyard caused Chiaki's steps to speed up; so far his journey around the edge of the house had been dark and dead silent. He really expected everyone to be caring for Takeru. But of course he was wrong.

Kotoha lowered her flute almost as soon as he stepped up next to her, although other than that she made absolutely no move to greet him. Her yellow sweater had slipped off of one of her shoulders, and she quickly readjusted it as she set her flute down beside her.

"So, he any better?" Chiaki had never been one to waste time talking, always getting straight to the point, but for once he wished he could talk and talk endlessly. Anything to avoid the topic that he knew that they would end up talking about. Besides, there wasn't much else to talk about. Monster attacks had been fairly sparse recently, and the other Sentai teams had mysteriously fallen quiet.

The yellow ranger glanced down at her lap, clasping her hands delicately. "I don't know," she admitted. "Mako-san's been doing all the work with the kurokos. Ryuu-san was watching him last." She paused, as if uncomfortable, reaching up to cup her hand around the necklace that she was wearing. "I just…felt useless back there. I'm not good at healing."

Chiaki laughed quietly, kneeling down beside her. "Neither am I. Sometimes you just gotta…get outta there, you know? Do what you're best at, even if it isn't caring for Takeru."

Kotoha smiled slightly, her shoulders curling as she shrank inward; her hand still curled around the necklace. She was still shy, Chiaki told himself, but that wouldn't affect what came out of his mouth. He made a note to help her with it later. She could be so different depending on her situation; she was usually much more upbeat when training or talking about her sister - but there was still that aspect of shyness that she had. Especially around Takeru.

Takeru…

Takeru. He'd given her that necklace, Chiaki remembered, for her birthday. The pendant was some gem that changed colors...alexandrite? Why or how he remembered this fact, he didn't know. He couldn't remember the correct strokes for his Mojikara half the time; there was absolutely no reason he should remember that Kotoha's necklace had an alexandrite stone.

She was worried about him. He knew that already, absolutely; she wouldn't be Kotoha without her loyalty towards Takeru, but somehow, seeing her treasure that necklace affirmed it for him. Made him all the more determined to comfort her.

"Hey," he said, leaning back to let his gaze shift up to the sky. "He'll be okay. I didn't mean to worry ya."

"But we don't know that, Chiaki," was her only reply; she was still avoiding his gaze. "We don't know what happened to him, so there's only so much we can do."

So much for comfort.

There was a slight noise behind them as the sliding door opened, and Mako stepped out to join them, Shodophone in hand.

"Nee-san," Chiaki glanced up at her as she turned to him, looking like she was just realising he was there. "Well, how is he?"

"I managed to contact the Gosei Angels," she replied simply, as if that would tell him everything. "Hyde came and took a look."

Kotoha reached over to take up her flute again, although she didn't play it; she gripped it tightly in her hands as she turned to face Mako. Her necklace dangled loosely around her neck, the pendant caught in her sweater. It was almost cute, Chiaki decided, but the face of worry she wore told him that that was the last thing on his list to be noticing. "So he's not getting better?"

All Mako could do was shrug, it seemed, but after a few moments her voice found words again. "It wasn't lethal, but…"

"But what?" Chiaki pressed, when she turned to tuck her Shodophone into her pocket.

"Hyde said it was poison. Non-lethal, but poison. He couldn't find anything else."

The younger two didn't reply, and Mako took the chance to turn away to head back inside. "He just left, but I told him I'd send you over to their place, Chiaki. Seems their Red suffered a similar attack."

Chiaki jumped to his feet, his fists clenching. "And you don't think that's suspicious at _all_? You just want me to go over there, and do what? Get in their way? Not try to investigate. You gotta be kidding me."

Mako shut the door without a reply. The tension in the air didn't change.

"Maybe you should listen to her, Chiaki." Kotoha got to her feet, pulling her sweater over her shoulder again. "If you want to investigate what's going on with Tono-sama, maybe you can find something out if you go over there. They are a Sentai, after all. They'll try to help you if you try to help them."

Chiaki scoffed, turning to head to the front of the house the long way. "I'm not a damn detective. I ain't solving a mystery. And I am _not_ asking those angels to help, thank you."

"But you want to help Tono-sama."

The green samurai paused, and then seemed to calm down, simply shaking his head as he disappeared into the house to fetch his shoes. "I will never understand how you convince me to do things."

—{~}—

His feet crunched against salt on the pavement as he kept his pace up. The night was especially black tonight; the contrast between light and dark in the light of the full moon complemented a beautiful view of the stars.

Sounded like something one of those Gosei Angels would say. Chiaki chuckled, throwing the thought out of his mind and slowing his pace to allow himself to kick the ground a few times, just out of frustration. He didn't exactly have anything against the Gosei Angels, but sometimes being part of a legacy was tiring, and he just wished he didn't have to interact with his successors quite so often. Or his predecessors for that matter. It had been nice when it was just him and the other five, fighting the Gedoushuu. Now there were experiences to remember, names to keep track of, and help to give. A legacy to protect and carry on.

But Kotoha was right. To help Takeru, he was going to have to offer some of his own help.

He stopped, crouching down to glance at a flower in his path, wedged in the edge of the sidewalk. Red, with green buds. The exact shades of red and green that the alexandrite stone in Kotoha's necklace reflected.

Red and green. Tracing the edge of a petal with a finger, Chiaki stood back up, biting the inside of his cheek. He shouldn't have paid attention to, or even noticed the flower in the first place, much less its colors. His first few weeks at the Shiba House had proven his focus and observation skills were, well, terrible, and they still were according to his attempts at practicing Mojikara not too long ago.

He quickly moved on, determined to forget the flower in the sidewalk. The flower could survive without help, and his help was needed elsewhere.

* * *

 _I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,_  
 _And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk_  
 _Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,_  
 _But dipped its top and set me down again._  
 _That would be good both going and coming back._  
 _One could do worse than be a swinger of birches._

— "Birches" by Robert Frost —


	3. Chapter 3: Copper

Copper

 _And when they found Right playing with shadows, his eyes flickering with light despite his insistence to stay in the darkest corners of the Ressha, their first reaction was to tell him to get more rest. Except there was one problem in telling him to sleep. Dreams tired Right even more than playing with shadows did. Dreams killed him faster than playing with fire did. And dreams could never save him from nightmares. Even so, every night they gave him a piece of chocolate and guided him to bed. Because there was nothing else they could do._

—{~}—

They'd heard about the other teams, and their red rangers being injured. Tokatti and Mio had brought it up at dinner, the latter having gotten a call from ShinkenYellow, but Hikari hadn't paid too much attention; he had been placed with the duty of watching Right, keeping an eye on him as he peered under the benches to find the darkest spots, and then when that was finally over, he'd gotten the briefing from Kagura. And by then it was already in the back of his mind as something he couldn't be concerned with. Because taking care of Right was one heck of a job. But the thought was still there; the first thing he thought of when the word "other rangers" came to mind.

So maybe it was important. But taking care of his own team was important too, and as long as Right or the others didn't show up near dead from candy, as far as he knew, unless the other teams called him asking for help in the matter, the Kendama Detective was not interfering with them, and would be helping take care of Right.

Hikari slumped into the nearest bench as the bright white lighting of the Ressha dimmed into something more suitable for nighttime. The steady clack of wood hitting wood beat in time with the train, as he tried to focus on his kendama.

The door slid open to reveal the other three ToQgers sans Right; Tokatti fidgeting with his glasses, Mio rubbing her hands together in a preoccupied sort of fashion, and Kagura, holding the chocolate that they usually gave Right when he went to bed in cupped palms, as if she was afraid if she touched it too much it would burst into flames.

"He said he didn't want it," she said simply, placing it carefully on the table as the others joined Hikari on the bench.

"That's not...him," were the only words that found their way out of Hikari's mouth, and the ball of his kendama slipped from its position perched atop one of the cups. Right had been acting like this for several days at this point, hence the extra care and chocolate he was receiving, but tonight was the first time he had refused all of that.

"You don't say…" Mio spoke slowly, twisting around to stare at the untouched piece of chocolate. "I mean...he usually accepts it no questions asked."

"So something's wrong, then," Tokatti jumped to the conclusion, pushing his glasses further up his nose for about the third time in as many minutes. "The darkness could be affecting his mood...but it shouldn't affect his appetite. It's as if he got injured or sick and didn't tell us. So we don't know what it is."

"I just hope he gets better," Kagura slid into the empty booth next to the bench the rest of them were sitting on and rested her chin on the table. "I don't like sad Right."

"None of us do," Hikari agreed, pulling the kendama up to spike the ball. "I just wish we knew what was wrong with him."

"It couldn't be a lack of Imagination, could it?" Mio ventured, tilting her head and crossing her arms. "Sure, we lost ours once, but Right's is much more powerful. You couldn't steal it all if he opened his arms and let you."

"Logically? It couldn't be that. It's not normal," he stated matter-of-factly, but as he turned his kendama over to toss the ball into the air again, he wasn't so sure. They _were_ a Sentai, and it sometimes seemed that logic went out the window when trying to figure out mysteries. Some mysteries were so straightforward he wanted to smack the others across the face, others seemed so out of this world he couldn't figure it out if the others smacked _him_ across the face.

"But this isn't logical. We're not normal. _I'm_ not normal." Right's voice only confirmed his thoughts, and—

" _Right."_ Hikari jumped to his feet, closely followed by Mio and Tokatti, with Kagura clinging to the latter's jacket sleeve. "Right, why are you up?"

The red ranger only let a small smirk onto his face, despite the effort it was taking him to slowly cross the length of the train car, grabbing onto every bench he could for support. "'Cause I'm fine. I don't know why you think I'm not." He was lying, Hikari could tell; his hands were gripping everything he touched like he was going to die if he didn't.

Mio was the first to sink back into her seat. "You're not, Right, and we're trying to figure everything out. It's for your own good."

Right didn't say anything, which to Hikari only confirmed that he knew what Mio was saying was right and that he had no good response.

"Would we be able to find out on our own?" Tokatti asked, and after a moment's hesitation, went over to Right to help him to the nearest bench. The latter slumped into it, forcing himself upright and tucking his legs up to his chest to rest his chin against his knees, his gaze trained very obviously on the piece of chocolate that Kagura had set on the table.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hikari snapped, instantly regretting how harsh his words sounded. Right fixed him with a dark glare as Kagura shrank back into the corner of the booth, and even Mio drew back a little at his sharp comment. Tokatti fidgeted with his glasses, muttering a quiet "Sorry," before sinking down onto the bench next to Right.

"I get what Tokatti means, though." Mio broke the silence, saving Hikari from the almost inevitable awkward apology. "Maybe there's a team with more experience than us when dealing with…darkness."

"Fear," Right muttered almost immediately. "You mean fear."

"Fear?" Kagura repeated, tilting her head curiously. Hikari only bit his lip in apprehension.

"We're not the only ones who fight monsters gathering negative feelings. The Shinkengers did it, didn't they? Their monsters gathered fear. You're letting fear get to you. That's what they'd want. There's _nothing_ wrong with me."

Hikari scowled in frustration. "Why bring that up now? Is it that they have rangers injured too right now?" Because even if Right denied it, Hikari knew he had heard that topic of conversation, or at least overheard him talking to Kagura. Thankfully, he didn't make another sound, allowing for him to finish his sentence. "Because this shouldn't involve them; this shouldn't have anything to do with —"

"So if we talk to the Shinkengers," Tokatti interrupted him, making the connections, voicing it aloud when it was clear that the rest of them did not want to, "They might know what's wrong with you."

"There's _nothing_ wrong with me," Right insisted again, but his eyes were directed down and slightly to his left. He was contradicting himself on several levels, and he knew it, and the others did too. The others were going to try and figure things out no matter what stood in their way.

Hikari stood up and paced towards the other end of the car, winding the string around his kendama. He still didn't see the reason to bring the Shinkengers into this conversation, but now that they were he thought it would be better to play along. "He might be right to just ask, Right," he tried to reason, biting the inside of his cheek.

"Fine," Right said, standing up again and making his way quickly over to the table before he could stumble. "I get it; you're worried about me. Worry about the other Sentai teams first, okay? They're the ones with rangers who are actually injured right now." Reaching across Kagura, who leaned back in surprise, he grabbed the chocolate off the table and shoved it in his mouth. "Look," he mumbled, his mouth still full, "I swear I'm okay."

A coppery taste of blood stung the inside of Hikari's mouth, and he relaxed his jaw as he realised how hard he was still biting his cheek. Swallowing it down, he didn't do anything but watch as Right stormed past him, back to his room. The others sat there in silence; not even Mio tried to break it.

The meeting broke up soon after Right had left, and the lighting in the Resshas clicked off as they all drifted back to their own quarters. Hikari contacted Mako and another Sentai warrior later that night to ask for advice, while Right refused to sleep, staring out the window and hoping that the others would just leave him alone.

* * *

 _So sleep tonight,  
We'll sleep dreamlessly this time  
When we awake we'll know that everything's alright..._

— "Arise," Flyleaf —


	4. Chapter 4: Emerald

_First update of 2016. Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you enjoy._

* * *

Emerald

 _His body was cold, his eyes were open, and his smile had never been so wide. Hyde curled around his partner's body as the tide came in, fingers clutching at the damp material that was once a fellow Seaick's jacket, so tight he could feel his fingernails through the crumpled layers of cloth in his fist._

 _"Magis…" His voice cracked as the breeze blew over them, wintery in the day's foggy air. It had felt cool and refreshing up on the top of the cliffs, but down here with water surrounding him and a dead body in his arms, it felt like a biting, cloudy gale with no sign of an end._

 _He let go eventually, at least with his hands, when the tide was high and he was soaked to the bone, and his partner's body had started to float in the water. He let go, placing the now faded, powerless Green Change Card in his partner's hands._

 _Later that night, he set his partner's body adrift in the ocean, burial the Seaick way._

 _Magis was dead._

—{~}—

They knew Hyde went to the ocean at least once a month, long before they became close as teammates. At first, it seemed like a useless trip, one of the few things Hyde did that would be considered useless fun. (They'd ask him about it, although it was more in a nagging, "Why don't you hang out with us" way. Hyde never answered them.) Then it seemed like for no reason other than to stare at the waves. (They knew it wasn't for fun, not with the way he acted so solemn.)

And then they'd found out about Magis. After that they let him go without pestering him so much, quieting down whenever he said the words "visit the ocean."

Naturally, this time was slightly different.

He told them he was going to go see the Shinkengers and find out what was wrong. It wasn't quite a lie; he'd done that. Takeru had been poisoned; no surprise, really; after Alata it was to be expected. But he'd chosen not to bring up the fact that today was always the day that he made his trip to the ocean; he hadn't wanted the simplicity of it to get mixed up in the chaos following the attacks. He was glad he hadn't mentioned it; something about feeling the air shift around him and staring out at the vast expanse of water was calming; something about the feeling of the waves slightly dampening his shoes as he stood on the shoreline pleased him. Like the others, he needed time to relax too.

"Sorry I couldn't come earlier today, Magis," he murmured, speaking softly to the water. "I hope it's not too late to say hello."

His words felt empty, though. His partner's spirit would always be part of the sea, and his Gosei Card would be too, even when his body was gone, but it didn't change the fact that Hyde would never get a reply from the constant waves of the ocean.

"Not much has changed," Hyde continued, shoving his hands in his pockets and leaning his weight onto one foot. "Some drama, but we always come through, so we'll make it through this time too.

"I suppose you already know all of this, though. Otherwise you'd...respond." His voice definitely felt hollow. They always did. Talking to a dead person could do that to words.

The waves lapped at his boots as he spoke, dampening them, and he sighed, kicking a stone at his feet. "I wish you'd just say _something_."

—{~}—

 _"You're okay, right, Hyde-kun?"_

 _He laughed, scrambling back onto his feet and using one of the rocks beneath him for support. "What's that supposed to mean? I'm always fine."_

 _Magis shrugged, huffing and dropping down to recline on the sand. He was relaxed and laid back for a Seaick; one could almost mistake him for another tribe. Skick, most likely. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a chocolate truffle, unwrapping it before offering it to Hyde. "Chocolate?"_

 _Hyde accepted it, sitting down beside his partner. "What did you mean?" he asked tentatively as he took a bite out of the sweet carefully._

 _Halfway through unwrapping a candy for himself, Magis paused in the action to answer. "I asked if you were okay. There really isn't anything more to it, and there's nothing wrong with saying whether you are or not."_

 _Hyde just shook his head, finishing off the chocolate and licking his fingers. "I'm always fine."_

 _There was a slight beat. "Like hell you are," Magis finally said, reaching out to jab his partner playfully in the ribs, and Hyde tried to loosen up and laugh along with his partner._

 _The conversation went on like this for a while, the sun climbing higher behind the clouds. Finally, Hyde stood, running a hand along the back of his neck and making up some excuse about meeting up with their Skick counterparts to discuss their increasing recklessness. (He enjoyed being Magis's partner, he did, but they both knew Hyde also liked time alone; he just was too polite to say it. Even to Magis.) "Thank you, Magis. For the chocolate." It was nothing special to thank him for, but to be polite was a good thing._

 _"No, thank you." Magis rose to his feet as well, punching Hyde playfully in the shoulder. "For being my partner. And everything else."_

 _"Eh?" The surprised sound found its way out of Hyde's mouth before he could say it, but it only caused Magis to laugh._

 _"Saying thank you for chocolate...That stuff...I guess it's always a way to say thank you. But it can be something else too."_

 _He had such a sweet tooth; Hyde was always amazed at where he had the space to keep all his candy. Magis pulled another truffle - this one with a bright, emerald green wrapper - out of his pocket, tossing it to Hyde as he waved goodbye, heading back up the rocks. "See you later, Hyde-kun." He grinned as he pulled himself up the stony slope, adding, "It was the Landicks who went crazy the other day. Not the Skicks."_

—{~}—

His Tensouder beeped, and he grabbed it quickly, glaring at it as the first thought that crossed his mind was that it had disturbed his peace. But he calmed back down almost immediately when he heard Moune's voice.

"You coming back, old man, or are you going to spend all night getting around? Because I'm going to bed."

Hyde couldn't help but smile a little at the joke Moune cracked, although there was still that spark of annoyance at her. "Kid," he sent a retort back, before turning serious. "On my way."

As he tucked the Tensouder back away, he dug his shoe slightly deeper into the sand, before removing it and watching the tide wash it away. "See you later then, Magis," he murmured, before turning away and heading back up the cliffs.

As he reached the top, he thought he saw a white shadow, a bird, swoop over the water. A swan? It was too big to be a bird, he realised after a moment, and in fact it was more humanoid than bird. Like an angel. Then it was gone. Thinking it was just his imagination, the Seaick angel turned to head back to the observatory.

* * *

 _Tell me what's wrong  
_ _'Cause your silence is deafening  
_ _We struggle and fight but the truth isn't changing_

— "World Gone Crazy," Sleepthief —


	5. Chapter 5: Silver

Silver

The Amachi Institute was a lot warmer on the inside than it looked, even with the lights off and most of its inhabitants asleep. Chiaki was glad for the warmth, peeling off his jacket as he stepped into the front room. Moune closed the door behind him, keeping her voice low to greet him as they jogged up the stairs together to the second floor room - it was an all too familiar one - where he stood there as she rushed around, tending to GoseiRed - _Alata_ , he told himself. The angels had names. But for some reason, as Moune rushed around, sometimes doing things so fast she seemed like a blur, that was a hard thing to remember.

"You sure there's nothing I can do?" he asked multiple times; he didn't want Mako sending him over here for nothing.

Moune looked at him funny each time he said that, the first time saying nothing. The second time, she'd given him something to hold while she checked the bandage on Alata's wrist.

He asked for a third time, feeling stupidly useless, as the moon climbed higher in the sky, and she finally turned to acknowledge his request in a more direct way.

"Look, I'm sorry I've ignored you. You've come to help. But watching Alata, it only takes one person. He won't wake up for a little while, and checking his wounds doesn't take much skill to do. I'm not saying Mako was wrong in sending you," she quickly amended, before continuing, "because company is always great. I'm just sorry I can't have you do more. There's not much to do."

He felt sort of better after her saying that, and he sat at the dining room table, opening and closing his Shodophone, watching her work. Every now and then, GoseiPink would appear, yawning and claiming she needed something - a drink or nighttime snack - and each time, he nodded politely to her and she nodded back, before disappearing into the kitchen to grab whatever she needed. Moune tried to include him, she did, and time crawled by until she had finished calling her teammate, Hyde.

"He should be back soon, but could you watch Alata until then? It's not much to do; you shouldn't have to redress bandages or anything. Come and get me or Eri if something happens." She looked exhausted; come to think of it, Eri had too, Chiaki thought, and so he accepted. He had asked for something useful to do anyway, and he knew this was about as useful as he could get.

"Thank you, Chiaki."

He just nodded, switching the light off and taking a seat in the chair by Alata's bedside, waving goodnight to Moune as she disappeared into the back for some well-earned sleep.

From there he tried to resume what he had been doing at the table, but for some reason he quickly lost interest in the quiet clicking of his Shodophone, and its flickering light as he opened and closed it. Open, closed, open, closed...Closed. In the pocket. What to do.

He ended up looking at the person he was supposed to be watching, studying his subtle movements to pass the time. The gentle movement of his breathing, in rhythm with the shifting, silvery moonlight.

He knew Alata and the Goseigers were young, but for some reason the beams of silver really caused the red angel to look like a child.

A child, younger than even Kotoha - GoseiRed looked her age without moonlight highlighting every softened feature of his face. A child, too young to be fighting monsters. A child, too young to have been found near dead from something innocent like candy.

Damn angels. Spending too much time around them made him pensive.

When the Seaick angel - Hyde; Chiaki reminded himself of GoseiBlue's name - slipped in quietly at some hour past midnight, he took over watching for Chiaki, offering him the spare bedroom, which he took out of politeness. The green samurai spent a good part of the night sitting at the window, staring at the blaring light coming from his Shodophone. Thinking he saw a white swan fly into the grounds of the Amachi Institute, the green samurai let himself be assured, and drifted off to sleep.

—{~}—

The Amachi Institute was a homely sort of place, the gardens well-kept. Gifted with a bird's eye view of the place, White Swan could almost believe it was not a Sentai's base. But of course, her source of addresses was always correct. This was the Goseiger's place, and a little bird had told her of current events in the Sentai world. She had decided to come take a look, for the reassurance that this wasn't going to turn into another attempted Vyram invasion.

Because White Swan - Kaori - liked to keep an eye on things. She liked things clear.

 _Red ranger attacked. Red ranger attacked. Red ranger sick_. A pattern, no? That's what she had noticed, and she was sure everyone else had too. Something worth investigating; she had the time.

She kept her pace slow but steady as she landed, heading up to the door of the Institute, adjusting her Cross Changer and preparing herself to knock. She knew it was late - some hour past midnight - and visitors at this time of night probably weren't appreciated anywhere.

A slight movement behind the bushes caught her eye, and she turned her focus to the plants, spotting the tiny splash of red hidden among the yellow flowers.

"You'll need to get better at hiding, I'm afraid," she called to the patch of red, and almost immediately, a young man in a varsity jacket popped into view.

"I thought I was pretty good…" he defended himself, although he raised his hands in surrender, stepping out from the flowerbed.

"Hide in some red flowers, perhaps?" He was a Red, for sure, by the way he held himself. He was tired; she could see it because of that silvery reflection of the moon in his eyes, but he seemed like he had boundless energy. A fire to him, when he wasn't half-asleep. Red qualities. Most definitely.

He pouted slightly, tucking his hands in his pockets, and the R on his jacket was thrown into the light as he crossed the courtyard to meet her.

 _Junk Motive_ , the label said.

"ToQ Ichigou. Right, is that correct?" She'd heard about the newest Sentai team, and met their pink quite recently, but she hadn't gotten around to meeting the others yet.

The young man stopped, looking genuinely surprised. "I feel like I should know you."

"Kaori." She offered her hand to shake, which he took. "White Swan of the Jetman, does that ring a bell?"

Right thought for a moment, his eyes becoming even more mystified, although Kaori had a feeling that was his thoughtful face. "Jetman...Super Sentai...that's it. I haven't met you before, then."

Kaori nodded, before mentioning the thought that had just come to her. "Right... You're the one Hikari called me about." (ToQ Yongou, Hikari, was the little bird, although the ten-minute conversation with him easily told her that he would not appreciate being called such.)

"Hikari called you?"

She smiled. "Your teammate's smart. He picked up on something wrong. But it looks unrelated to the others," she confirmed after a moment's hesitation, and suddenly Right's eyes cleared.

"You know about that too? The attacks. I was just coming to ask about that. Ask the Goseigers, I mean." Right's gaze fell as she opened her mouth again, interrupting her. "And now I suppose you're going to have to ask me what's wrong with me before you see them."

Kaori had already heard most of it from Hikari. Seeing the Red in front of her, in person, just confirmed the accuracy of his words. "No particular need to."

Right had relaxed when he'd found out she was Jetman, practically slumped when she'd said there was actually something wrong with him, but here he tensed slightly, in a happy, confident way, like he was no longer holding himself in a defeated position. His eyes flickered; they no longer had that mystified look to them, although they were still tired. She'd helped him put his mind to rest, at least. She was glad.

She shrugged, patting his shoulder (he seemed like he was the type to like that type of praise; he acted younger than some of the other Reds his age), and she thought he had this ghost of a smile appear on his face, before she turned to knock on the Institute's door.

"So who do you think did it?"

She folded her hands behind her back, slightly impatient with him. She hadn't come to the Amachi Institute to talk to him, although knowing that she had put his mind to rest made her glad. "Not a monster I know. What about you?"

"Someone who knows Sentai well enough to know that this would throw us off." He kicked the ground, tucking his hands into his pockets. " _All_ the Sentai."

She sighed. That had gone nowhere. Well, almost nowhere. "There's the Black Cross King."

He looked clueless, and he bit back a yawn, shaking his head. "Doesn't seem _like_ a monster, though. Monsters who try to defeat Sentais...normally they come with a whole army and demand that we fight them. And most outsiders don't know enough about us to know what gets on our nerves."

Kaori left the doorstep, standing face to face with him. "So what you're saying," she said, keeping her voice low, "is that there's a traitor in the Sentai." Now they were getting somewhere, but she wasn't sure how long that would last.

Right's gaze fell, and he refused to make eye contact with her. "It's happened before."

Kaori took a step back, letting out a sigh as she saw Right's eyes starting to darken. "You have a point," she said finally.

A moment passed before Right shrugged, adjusting his jacket cuff. He seemed to be getting twitchy again, Kaori noted, and she didn't want him to get any more nervous than he was already. "I'd better get back to the Ressha," she heard him mutter, and she smiled slightly as he sheepishly started edging away from the door. "I can...wait to talk to the Goseigers."

"You're not supposed to be out, are you?"

Right grinned. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell my teammates, if you see them." He paused. "Good night, White Swan."

"It's Kaori," she told him gently, turning to knock softly on the door.

—{~}—

Kaori ended up talking with Hyde, the blue Goseiger, who promised to relay the information to his team's Pink, Eri. She told him about Right. She told him about what he said. She told him what she knew, and Hyde told her what he knew.

There was nothing new gained from talking with him, no new information at least, but Kaori couldn't help feeling that the meeting hadn't been a waste of time. Perhaps in time the conversations between Right and her, and Hyde and her would become relevant.

She knew it wasn't Vyram at this point. Perhaps ToQ Ichigou had had a point when he said there was a traitor among the them.

* * *

 _Hello darkness, my old friend  
_ _I've come to talk with you again_

— "Sounds of Silence," Simon & Garfunkel —


	6. Chapter 6: Ivory

Ivory

Eri's wings itched to stretch as she hurried down to the park, children dodging around her. She'd forced herself to arrive at the place she was meeting Mako and another Pink - someone by the name of Kagura -in what would be considered a "normal" way; that is, not dropping in from the sky. She'd never met Kagura before, and thought it was better to arrive in the least strange way possible. Good impressions meant a lot, after all. As she sat on the edge of the bench, hands gripping the hem of her skirt in excitement, she felt a touch on her shoulder. She looked up to see the face of an older woman dressed in an ivory-white overcoat, who, with no words at all, just raised her wrist to show a red and silver bracelet in the shape of a triangle.

"Kaori." Eri identified the bracelet - _morpher_ \- and recalled the name from a brief encounter in the middle of a battle, where she'd fought side by side with the woman for a period of about two minutes. "White Swan."

She nodded, coming around the bench to sit beside her. "So the Goseigers still know me. Good. Every year a new team joins us, and there's five more people I have to introduce myself to. I'd hate to have you forget me, Eri."

"Wings are hard to forget." She remembered this feeling, in the brief time they'd spent fighting. Kaori made her feel more mature, like she could sound more elegant when talking, look more elegant when moving. "One thing we have in common."

Kaori just smiled. "I'm sure we'd have more if we had time to talk."

 _The train is now arriving. Please wait behind the white line._

There was a flash of rainbow in the middle of the road; what looked like speeding train cars cut across the road, and when they disappeared a girl in a pale blouse and plaid skirt was standing there, with another young woman standing slightly behind her, also dressed in pink. Eri knew the latter was Mako, but she had yet to meet the other, though she must be a pink ranger. Kagura.

The girl ran towards Kaori with a bright smile on her face, with Mako close behind. The latter nodded to Eri, tilting her head towards the young girl. _ToQ Gogou_ , she mouthed, and Eri nodded, before the girl addressed her! nodding politely.

"It's nice to meet you."

Eri smiled, letting her Skick bubbliness out. She needed an outlet - caring for Alata around the others required her to be serious, and she needed a break from that. "Nice to meet you as well. I'm Eri," she continued, "GoseiPink."

"Goseiger? You're a Gosei Angel?" the girl repeated, and then her eyes lit up like she was just coming to a realisation. "So you can fly?"

Eri nodded cautiously.

"That is so cool...I'm Kagura," the girl went on, holding her hand out for Eri to shake. "And, uh, well… I guess Mako was the one to organize this."

Mako nodded. "Although I wasn't expecting Kaori to be here. It was mostly about our Reds. Alata and Takeru attacked, and then there's Right…"

"Right. Light hair, varsity jacket. He was at the Amachi Institute last night," Kaori supplied; she was remembering her experience with the young Red.

"He was on the Ressha the entire time last night," Kagura interrupted.

Kaori raised her eyebrows in feigned surprise. (After all, she had said she would try to keep Right's sneaking out a secret, but when that wasn't an option, the least she could do was pretend she didn't know he wasn't allowed to be out.) "I talked with him."

A confused look crossed Kagura's face. "What did he say?" Confused, and worried.

"Not much. But he came to the conclusion that there is a traitor amongst us. Well...we did." There was this expression on Kaori's face that Eri couldn't quite read. Like she had just broken a promise or something.

Eri's gaze dropped to her feet, and she sat back down on the bench. "Is that what you came to tell us?"

There was a beat. "Unfortunately, yes. It's one of you, or your teammates, is the best theory I have."

Eri had the feeling that Kaori wasn't the one to deliver good news when there wasn't any.

"Hyde said he'd tell you. Did he not?"

Eri shook her head. "I only saw him for a few minutes this morning before I left. He didn't say a word."

"And he didn't because…?"

"Hyde has absolutely no reason to attack any other ranger," Eri snapped, feeling the heat rise to her face. She admired Kaori and had no desire to argue, but the idea that White Swan was implying at that moment shocked her into an outburst. "There is absolutely no reason at all to lay the blame on him. On any of our team."

Kaori said nothing. Of course the pink angel would react that way.

Mako broke the silence that followed, a little too similar to the way Alata would when there was tension between Agri and Moune, Eri thought: with a cheerful tone and a spark in her eyes. "Takeru woke up today."

So there was the good news that the meeting needed.

"How is he?" Eri asked, wondering vaguely if Alata would be the same way.

"He wanted salty foods, but other than that he seems...perfectly fine. Just a few more days of recovery and he should be back on his feet."

"Alata still hasn't woken up," Eri admitted. Might as well tell them that. "But I think he will soon. It's not a coma or anything like that at this point. It's like...it's like he's taking a nap."

It was completely and totally true. He was, seemingly, only napping at this point. No fitful dreams, no unnecessary squirming. But at the same time. It didn't necessarily mean that he was going to be okay. Which is what she was worried about.

But how useful was that? It looked like the meeting was over for now. Kagura murmured something about Right being the same, and that she needed to get back; it was her turn to look after him today.

"I'll tell the others everything," she promised, already glancing around like she was waiting for a train to arrive. (Judging from her arrival, she'd be leaving that way too.) "Call me when we figure something out, please."

Eri promised her, watching her go, before turning to the other pink ranger. "Thanks for the good news, Mako-san. And I hope we can figure this out soon."

The pink samurai merely nodded, waving goodbye before jogging in what Eri guess was the general direction of the Shiba House. A distant train whistle told her that Kagura had found her way back to the Ressha, as well. Kaori took her leave, and Eri watched the action of the park around her for a bit, before unfurling her wings. Letting out a sigh of relief, and stretching them a moment, she kicked off, to fly back to the Amachi Institute.

* * *

 _I will place within some of you questions. Within others, I will place answers. These questions and these answers will not always align. The questions I provide may have no answers, and the answers I provide may have no questions._

— "Welcome to Night Vale," Episode 9 —

* * *

 **AN:** Maybe more action next update, I am thinking... Thanks for sticking with me on this fanfic thus far!


	7. Chapter 7: Gold

Gold

"Hikari? Are you alright?"

The green ranger stopped passing his mini-Ressha from hand to hand (the only reason for this being he'd left his kendama in his room), glancing over his shoulder to meet eyes with Mio. "As alright as I can be, I guess," he finally admitted, tucking the tiny train back into his pocket.

Mio came to sit next to him, a cup of tea from Wagon's food cart in her hand. "You're worried about something."

"One guess as to what it is."

She answered correctly. There was no other option, really. "Kagura told me about the other rangers. The pinks. There's no new information coming from any of them, but…"

"There may be a traitor. Yeah. She told me too." More notes to go in his notebook, which had also been left in his room. So far, the ones he had taken were leading him nowhere.

"Who do you think it is?"

"Dunno. I'm just worried about how we'll deal with them when we do find out who it is. If the theory that it's someone in a Sentai...if that's true, then it's not just black and white anymore. It might be harder to...deal with it.."

Mio shrugged, standing up and handing Hikari his kendama and his notes; she must have come to give them to him. "You'll figure it out who it is. We'll all figure out how to deal with it when you do."

He nodded. "I'm heading over to the Goseigers' place soon. Maybe they'll tell me something I don't already know."

Flipping to a new page in his notebook, he began to pencil out a new list of facts.

—{~}—

"He's awake! Someone get Eri!"

Moune's voice was triumphant, and Agri jumped, coming face to face with his sister in the hallway.

On any other given day, or any other circumstance, Agri would have told his sister that there was no need to yell. But he as much as anyone else wanted to see the Skick angel awake, and that cheerful grin on her face was so startling he couldn't wipe it off her face if he tried.

Hikari rounded the corner without anyone even having to say anything. He'd arrived about an hour ago, but they hadn't been able to tell him anything at the time. (The look on his face had been disheartening, Agri remembered, but now he looked refreshed; maybe this was the clue he was looking for.) Agri ran past him to repeat the shouted news, with an even greater level of volume.

Eri and Hyde came scrambling over each other as they raced towards the main room, with Nozomu close on their heels. (Actually, it was more like Eri was shoving past Hyde, while the Seaick was trying to get her to contain her excitement, and Eri just ended up dragging him along.)

They all tumbled into the main room, up to Alata's bedside, with Chiaki and Hikari already standing up on the landing where the telescope was. Chiaki looked reluctant to join the angels; Hikari, Agri couldn't tell what he was thinking.

The red Skick angel, sitting up among the nest of blankets with a cup of tea in his hands that Moune had just handed to him, bit his lip as they all stared at him expectantly.

"How do you feel, Alata?" Hikari finally called from the landing, grabbing Chiaki's jacket collar and dragging him down the stairs to join the others.

The young angel sighed, reaching up to stretch. However ill he'd been, he seemed better. Stronger. If it weren't for the Band-Aids on his cheek and forehead, and the rare coughs he was giving, he would have looked perfectly fine. "Tired. Craving salt." And there was his voice too. His voice sounded tired.

It wasn't the answer any of them were expecting, Agri didn't think. Less like Alata than they'd hoped. "Salt?" the Landick angel repeated slowly, tugging at the sleeve of his jacket. Even Eri paused her anxious tapping of fingers against the leather sofa.

Hikari had a similar expression on his face to Agri's, gripping tightly to his kendama. "So the salt that Takeru mentioned isn't a coincidence."

"It might have been the poison," Hyde offered tersely, looking increasingly worried.

Alata just looked confused.

Salt was a component of the Seaick world that Agri could relate to, and he could understand the worry on Hyde's face that wasn't apparent on Alata's. The increasing relevance of salt felt unnatural. Suspicious, to say the least. And Hikari's expression told Agri he was thinking the same thing. He made a mental note to talk to him.

Alata's hand shook slightly as he stared at the slightly vibrating surface of the tea, breaking the silence that followed Hyde's comment. "The person who ambushed me… His hand tasted like salt. Or it had salt on it. I remember that."

Agri shot another glance at Hikari; the latter was reaching for the notebook he kept in his jacket pocket.

Alata shifted uncomfortably, curling into a tight ball where he was, like he was retreating into an undisturbable silence.. Eri took the signal to shoo everyone out, and Agri went straight for his book, heading out to read.

—{~}—

A shadow fell over his book, blocking the golden light from the lamp. "Hey, you. You're not bothered by the cold?"

Agri looked up to find Hikari standing over him in front of the door. "Not really," he admitted, shifting on the step to make room for the green ranger. "I'm used to it."

Hikari shivered, joining him. "You're good with weather, then? I never was."

Agri just shrugged, attempting to return to his reading. He'd noticed Hikari's inability to deal with cold; even with the green jacket he sported, he looked like he was on the edge of chills.

There was a brief silence, before Hikari reached into his pocket, bringing out his kendama. "Alata seems to be getting better."

"Mhm." Agri agreed for the sake of agreeing. He himself actually wasn't so sure that he _was_ getting better - and Hikari didn't know Alata nearly as well as he did - but the last thing he wanted to do was put Hikari's spirits down. ToQ Yongou, for all he didn't know him, seemed like someone Agri would like to get to know. If the circumstances were different, perhaps it would be possible. But now wasn't quite the time.

A tiny notebook plopped neatly into the middle of the page, effectively distracting him once again. Agri picked it up and looked at it, spotting Hikari suppressing a grin in his peripheral vision.

"My notes," the green ranger said shortly, never taking his eyes off his kendama, the ball of which was balancing precariously on the base cup. "For all I've noticed, I can't seem to find a connection. I was hoping you might, being around Alata so much."

Or maybe it was the right time.

Opening the tiny notebook, Agri skimmed the neat print. He supposed it did seem random. But then again, with all this information, there was bound to be something in here…

 _Salt? — Damp feeling in the air, all cases. — Symptoms of others like Right, but poison in those cases. — Fear tactic?_

"I can't see anything either," Agri finally told Hikari, handing his notebook back and returning to his book. (But he could sense some pattern to the notes. He just wasn't sure what it was yet.)

He couldn't stop thinking about it, even after Hikari had nodded, thanking him and returning indoors, claiming to be cold.

 _It's one of you. ~Kaori._ One of the notes, tucked in the margins of the page, had jumped out at him.

Something in Agri's head clicked. It was someone who'd been all around recently, trying to figure out what was up with all these attacks. Someone who would always have the taste of salt on his hands, because that was who he was.

A love for chocolate. And someone who knew about the other Sentai teams.

Salt. The ocean.

Hikari wouldn't know about the powers of Seaick angels, much less the background of Hyde.

* * *

 _And in search of confirmation, we have jumped into the fire_  
 _And scrambled with our burning feet through uncontrolled desire_

—"Turning Away," Celtic Thunder —


	8. Chapter 8: Lead

Lead

 _Hyde couldn't get over that ice cold feeling in his hands, the same one he had felt when he'd held Magis's body in his hands. Now, it seemed, whenever he touched the water, he felt that same feeling - cold, numbing. Not quite pain, not yet, but lingering. For a Seaick, it was troubling to say the least._

 _So now, whenever he took his trip to the ocean, he'd spend hours walking along the rocky beach, the water lapping at his boots, and sometimes just he'd sit, waiting, on the shore. Like he was anticipating the day when, suddenly, Magis would emerge from the waves, perfectly fine, laughing, and Hyde would yell at him for pulling such a prank, and Magis would give him a chocolate and tell him "Sorry, lighten up," and everything would be okay._

 _But it wasn't okay. It was never okay._

—{~}—

"Oi, Hyde."

The blue angel's eyes snapped open, and he sat bolt upright on the sofa, clearing his throat and immediately pretending to be busy arranging the flower arrangement on the table. Alata having moved back to his bedroom a few days ago - although Eri and occasionally Nozomu still tended to him - the room was in a little disarray, and was in need of a cleaning. (Of course, that's not what he had been doing, but anyone finding him doing nothing except thinking about Magis wouldn't go over well either.)

"Can I talk to you?"

Agri. The Landick angel was standing just in front of him, book in hand, leaning against one of the armchairs as he waited for the Seaick to respond.

Hyde hesitated, in the middle of pinching a dead stem from a dogwood. The uncomfortable look on Agri's face told him the conversation they were about to have might not turn out very well. "What about?"

"It's just...this whole mess about chocolate."

He wouldn't call it a mess, Hyde thought. He'd call it chaos, especially with the vague information Alata had given them a few days ago. But for him it was perfectly clear. The appearance of that _stupid_ shapeshifting monster had been the start of everything.

—{~}—

 _The weather was eerily similar to the day Magis had died. It was one of_ those _days, Hyde thought as he trailed his fingers along the surface of the incoming waves. The water was cold, but it wasn't numbing, for once. And then it almost felt like it was...warm._

 _The water a ways off started to bubble, and Hyde took a step back. And then another. And then he scrambled away from the water, because..._ That _bubbling... he and the other Goseigers - they'd destroyed that monster. Kurasuniigo of the 5000°C; he and the others had destroyed him. And yet there that he was, standing before Hyde as if none of that had happened._

" _Oh, Hyde-kun. I was hoping you would be here."_

Hyde-kun. _No monster would_ ever _call him that._

 _Sure enough, as soon as he reached this conclusion, the monster in front of him shifted, transforming. Transforming, from Kurasuniigo of the 5000°C, to someone a hell of a lot more frightening. That wasn't Camoumirage. That could only be a shape-shifting monster, and Hyde hated it with all his soul already._

 _Magis -_ the monster using Magis's body _\- climbed the shore to where Hyde stood, extending his hand in greeting. "I hope you don't mind me donning this form. Let's get along, Hyde-kun."_

 _His eyes were a dark silver, the colour of lead, but as Hyde took the offered hand, he couldn't help but think how_ Magis _the monster was._

—{~}—

"I didn't really want to talk to you about it, actually." And yet here Agri was, talking to Hyde. "But...well, I saw Hikari's notes."

"And?" Hyde felt uneasy, but he couldn't get up and leave. Leaving would only make him look extremely suspicious. He didn't say anything else, and he glanced at Agri from the corner of his eye, hoping the assumption that Hikari's detective notes weren't sufficient to narrow it down yet.

"And...well, I think it's pretty well known by now the attacker is someone inside. It's not just some random monster." Agri was speaking slowly, and he moved into the armchair he had been leaning against when it became clear Hyde wasn't going anywhere.

If only Agri knew the truth, Hyde thought. Technically speaking, it _was_ some random monster. And...well, long story short, Hyde hoped to avoid a drawn out war with this monster by giving him what he wanted: that is, fractured, broken Sentais, in exchange for not harming the earth.

He'd also promised to give Magis's body back. And that was all Hyde wanted to have in return.

"Well...from what I could get from Hikari's notes...it sounds an awful lot like it's a blue ranger."

—{~}—

 _Hyde researched the monster without telling the others. As it turned out, the monster's powers included being able to absorb dead bodies and take on their form, use their voice, recall their memories. He also had no original form, no default face. Once he donned a form, he could stay in it as long as he wanted. And that was a problem._

 _He told himself he'd refer to the monster as nameless. But the only name that came to mind...was Magis. This monster was not Magis, he told himself, and he would not refer to him in that way._

 _But still, all he really wanted was to call his partner by name. Magis._

—{~}—

Hyde dropped the dead buds on the table until he finished trimming, sweeping the leaves off of the table with one hand. "So you thought I would know what my colour was up to?" By the way Agri said 'blue ranger,' he wasn't just going off of a guess.

"Not reall...yes."

"I don't. I can't keep up with forty people's schedules." He didn't like how harsh he sounded. But while he was known for his cool head in battle, fighting with his own teammates did not have the same results. He got nervous when fighting with the others. Not that he'd ever say that.

Agri looked more uncomfortable than when he started, and he still seemed at a loss for words. (Agri had never been good with words, Hyde recalled, and he felt bad for being so edgy.) "Well...I mean, there was enough of a connection in Hikari's notes. I thought you might know. But maybe the culprit is just really good." The Landick shrugged, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.

Hyde clenched his fist, hearing the dead flower buds crackle in his hand. "It sounds like the most solid theory I've heard so far. I'll look into it." And by _look into it_ , he meant covering up his tracks better.

Agri didn't say anything for an uncomfortably long period of time, and Hyde got the feeling he didn't buy his excuse. "Hyde, there's one more thing—"

 _He knew_. Or he thought he did. Because Agri was rarely pushy like this. Hyde reached over, jamming a small candy - dark chocolate, identified by the shiny pitch black wrapper - into his palm. "I've told you everything. I can look into other things for you, but it doesn't do us any good to question each other."

Agri nodded, rising from the armchair and disappearing into the back, calling to Eri to see if she needed help.

—{~}—

There was a slight breeze as Hyde stood on the steps under the lamp, and he shrugged at his jacket, thinking.

Because Agri was so close it hurt. Agri was this close to finding out that it was him.

"I can't do this anymore," he told the darkness in front of him, although he was pretty sure no one was there. "They're going to find out and then I can't be a mole for you anymore. And then what are you going to do?"

 _"You're really worried about that?"_ The sharp pain at the back of Hyde's neck caused him to flinch, slapping at the source. There was still nothing around him. And yet he knew the voice all too well.

" _You and I both know perfectly well that they're going to find out. And if you're not going to deal with them, when they do, I'll do it myself."_

Hyde continued to stand there, a leaden feeling sliding over his head, and he was pretty sure he saw the ghostly outline of a tall, human figure standing somewhere in front of him. He'd known monsters who bluffed, but this hit way too close to home. He couldn't be faking. What could Hyde do about it, though?

" _He knows. Agri knows. And you know it. So that's one problem to deal with, isn't it?"_

Hyde spun on his heel and raced indoors without saying anything, and a chill - the one he always felt when he was close to Magis - inched up his fingers as he headed up the stairs to the main room. He could be safe from that monster there.

* * *

 _It's because you don't realize just how foolish you are  
_ _Believing in something as fragile as hope  
_ _That I wanted to show you another kind of justice  
_ _There's no turning back, I'm past the point of no return_

— "Point Of No Return," from Kamen Rider Gaim: Music Arms —


	9. Chapter 9: Topaz

Topaz

It was always Hyde, Chiaki noticed. He couldn't really blame Eri for not coming; she was busy helping Alata most of the time, just like Mako was with Takeru. The other Goseiger candidates for checkups - Moune in particular - spent most of her time with Kotoha and the ToQgers, and Chiaki would bet a hundred pages of kanji practice that both Agri and Ryuunosuke felt like they would mess things up if they were the ones tasked with the errand (however much Ryuunosuke wanted to do it, even he acknowledged he would not be the best choice for messenger). And so it was always Hyde who relayed messages, always Hyde who came to ask if they had any new information. They never did, and Hyde never got discouraged, but Chiaki was starting to wonder if the two attacks were just complete coincidence.

He fiddled with the brush on his Shodophone a few times as was habit, watching Hyde's back as he left. It was a beautiful day, and all the others would be enjoying it. Only he had been asked to stay behind, just in case. He'd gritted his teeth and accepted, because Kotoha already had plans with the ToQgers and he didn't know where Ryuunosuke had gone.

"Same old..." he muttered to himself, glancing over his shoulder to the room where he could just see Mako and the Kuroko serving Takeru breakfast (he hoped to God that Mako hadn't cooked it; the last thing they needed was for Takeru to keel over again). The quiet days sitting around the mansion were starting to get dull, and neither Agri nor Hikari seemed to like to answer messages asking if they'd like to go out and get something to eat.

His Kuma Origami nudged at his hand impatiently, and he stroked its head with a finger, watching it pounce around and climb up his arm impatiently.

"The Chiaki I know would be complaining loudly about how he can't go anywhere by now."

"Nee-san, could you not... _appear_ like that?" Chiaki spun around, dropping his Origami in surprise, and it hopped back up onto its feet almost immediately, trembling as if shaking out its fur. Mako just shrugged, her Kame Origami perched on her shoulder.

"Having you sit around isn't doing any good," she told him, gesturing towards the mansion entrance. "It looks like I'll be fine around here for a little while."

Chiaki took it to mean she wasn't just telling him to get fresh air; she was ordering him to, and who would argue with Mako about that? She nodded again, a little more urgently this time, affirming his thoughts. His Origami folding into its square form and jumping into his hands, he nodded his thanks and raced towards the door.

(Agri hadn't answered any of his calls, but there was a message from Hikari saying he needed a break; he'd join him for lunch.)

—{~}—

His kendama lay untouched by his lamp, and Hikari lay sprawled on the bed as he flipped through the extensive list of notes that playing detective had resulted in. Normally he'd be at a desk or sitting up straight to do this; he concentrated better when he did that, but for some reason it didn't feel right sitting up straight and skimming through notes for this.

Hikari had spent the majority of the past few days on the Ressha to examine his notes. The Amachi Institute seemed to be the hub of the mystery, and the Shiba mansion was a crowded place with a heck ton of information, and while he wanted to be as close to them as possible, all the angels and samurai and heck prevented him from concentrating. It was much easier in the quiet of his room. Besides, with Right still needing an eye kept on him at all times, it was easier for the others if he was around. (He and Tokatti had gotten stuck with that duty today, while the girls went out and had fun.)

But Right was better, it seemed. The symptoms had been so similar, but he had recovered much more quickly than the other Reds. Hikari tried not to be frustrated at Right; he couldn't help getting sick. But distractions: something he didn't want.

He'd tried to ask Kaori for help again, like he had when Right was ill. She said she'd investigate more; she'd told him all she could for the moment. Hikari hated that. It was the same answer he'd been getting for so long now, even if he knew they all really, really meant it.

His phone rang at that exact moment, and he sat up in surprise, staring at it blankly.

Tapping to answer the call, he brought it up to his ear, sitting up and expecting the alert of a monster appearing, already reaching for his boots. Instead, a cheerful female voice answered his quiet hello.

"Find anything, detective?" He could hear feet pounding up the stairs as she said this, and he collapsed back onto the bed, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Not yet, Moune," he admitted, reaching over to take up his notebook again. "Not anything in what I've taken notes on, anyway." Seeing Chiaki later might tell him something new; they both needed a break, but naturally they always seemed to gravitate towards that topic of conversation, when they did talk.

"Well then, what are you expecting to find?" The sound of a door opening in the background. Voices.

"Something that'll identify the ranger we're looking for," he said, struggling to leaf through the notebook one-handed above him. "They've got to have some signature thing that'll slip them up. The best I can figure right now is that the salt means it's a blue ranger. That damp feel in the air and salt could mean salt water, you know?"

"Well, Hyde can take care of the water part of that, but if you need salt to look at, Oniichan and I can…" Moune's voice trailed off, and she let out this strangled noise that Hikari could only identify as a sound of horror.

"Moune?"

"Hikari. Get over here now," she choked out, and Hikari could hear her starting to cry. "Oh my God, get over here now."

* * *

 _Tired tongue and aching chest_  
 _What it takes outdoes your best_  
 _Death redraws the line_  
 _Do you feel alive?_

— "We Die Young," The Showdown —


	10. Chapter 10: Jade

_AN: A quick warning that there are graphic images in the chapter. Proceed at your own risk. [I am not sorry.]_

 _(Publishing this chapter earlier than planned, due to busy school schedules...)_

Jade

It was clear what had happened before Hikari had even reached the second floor. The smell of chocolate wafted through the open door, apparent from all the way down the hall. There was something more sinister about it, though. Because under all that chocolate, there was a sterile scent of ammonia. He couldn't help but run the rest of the way, the moment he could sense it. But nothing could have prepared him.

Hikari choked as he entered the room, as soon as he spotted the tiny crowd that had amassed in the corner.

That could not be what he was called here for.

 _Agri._

 ** _Agri._**

Agri, lying face up, too perfectly arranged, with one bloodied hand reaching out in the direction of the windows, and the other bent and placed across his chest in a clenched fist. And then there was the rest of his body, which Hikari found horrifying and yet for some reason, he could not look away.

His body, a mess, an art. Tucked in every bleeding gash in his stomach was a multitude of chocolate candies, wrapped in translucent paper; every vein, every not-quite-healed scar, every open cut was meticulously outlined in what must have been caramel sauce, pooling at the floor beneath him. Mixed with the puddle of blood and caramel forming at Agri's side was more and more melted chocolate, eventually thinning out to form a delicate trail pointing towards the door. More of the chocolate sweets were scattered across the floor, and a small one was resting in the palm of his open hand, with a slightly crumpled, jade-green wrapper.

Hikari wished they'd left his face alone, serene in the hell around him that was too much to bear, but that would have been too much to ask. The Landick angel's lips were curled upward, forced into this unnaturally wide grin for someone dead, the only indication to the bloodstained teeth and jellybeans overflowing his throat. And his eyes were open, absolutely untouched, the only part of this body that was still...Agri.

Moune let out a small sob as she spotted Hikari, slipping out of Chiaki's hold on her shoulders and falling to her knees beside her brother. "God…" Hikari could hear her whisper, even from the far end of the room. "I saw him just a few hours ago."

While he'd never actually seen Moune cry, he could tell she had been, and he could tell she was damn close to starting again. He stuck to a little further off than the others, lingering by the dining table to observe. Yet another pair of eyes to keep an eye on Agri's sister, the young angel starting to shake in shock.

"I swear...whoever did this...is going to pay," she murmured, her hands hovering over his brother's body, over his opened chest, so close to clutching his bloodied jacket and yet so far, not wanting to touch the tangled, chocolatey mess. "Oniichan," she whispered, finally placing a hand on his shoulder and shaking him slightly. "Oniichan."

They'd all seen the elder Landick angel not a day ago. He'd talked. Laughed.

After a while, Hyde leaned down and tugged at Moune's arm, pulling her to her feet, whispering in her ear. "They're going to have to clean all this up. Let's get out of their way."

She stood and whipped to face him, sending a sharp slap across his cheek. "You sound like he wasn't Agri. Your friend. My brother. You sound like he wasn't _alive_ , old man."

Hyde's gaze softened, and he took her by the elbow. "They have to do something about cleaning _him_ up, Moune."

She didn't resist as he led her out of the room, and the others spent a few more moments staring at their fallen comrade, before beginning to work.

* * *

 _Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, 'tis time to do 't. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him._

— Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1 —


	11. Chapter 11: Amethyst

_**AN** : Yes. I did that in the last chapter. I am not sorry, just yet. And now we will continue._

Amethyst

There was a knock on the door, and Hikari looked up expectantly, jumping to his feet to answer it upon Eri's call from the back, "Can someone get that?"

"Kaori." The woman whom he came to face when he opened the door gave a brief introduction for herself, striding into the room with barely a second to waste, and she extended a hand in greeting when he told her his name. "Pleased to finally meet you, Hikari." From there she turned to examine the scene with a gaze that looked so analytical that Hikari decided he wouldn't be able to master until he became a real detective.

She stood there for a while, with that look on her face, and she asked Hikari to fill her in on the story. He handed her his notes, and she flipped through casually as he talked. When he finished, all she did was nod.

"Well," she acknowledged at last, taking a few steps around the room to examine it. "Whoever did this is a hell better than any monster I've ever seen. Sentai ranger or not."

Hikari didn't reply; she continued her work silently. It continued in this way for a while, and it became clear she wasn't just thinking about what had happened here, because every now and then she'd ask him some strange question. Sometimes it was relevant to the current situation, but other times it seemed like she was simply reaffirming what she already knew.

"You said it was the same person," was one example, as she glanced up from examining the wooden floor where they had found Agri.

"The same person doing this? It has to be. Or two people working very closely, if it's more than one." It was easier for him to play along, rather than ask why. They were all in shock, and resisting her questions would just lead to further confusion.

She laughed, handing his notebook back. "You'd make a fine detective one day. Call if you need any advice."

"Wait." Hikari stopped her, glancing at the notes in his hand. She had read them, but she hadn't made any new ones. "You're not staying? I mean...there's still so much to do."

She turned back to fix him with a slight smile. "I made a lot of time available to meet with you. I interrupted many things to make sure you were alright, and you are. You guys can fight this monster on your own, and you'll have to. But you can defeat it. Besides," she smirked, mimicking his pose, "You're the Kendama Detective, aren't you?" Her expression softened as she saw him hold back a smile. "I'm sorry about Agri. Tell them that. And if you call, I'll answer."

Hikari just nodded, instinctively reaching for his kendama, and White Swan took her leave without another word.

—{~}—

 _Moune usually enjoyed sneaking candy out of Eri's stash and sharing it with her brother, whenever they had the chance. After Alata had been attacked, she still found the sweets bearable, delivering a piece to each of her teammates when they were busy working too hard to even get up and get something to eat. A comfort food, an energy snack, whatever they wanted to call it. But never again. She would never again eat that chocolate._

Hyde was careful not to touch Moune as he sat down beside her; the younger angel was sitting on the sofa with her head in her hands, in the same room where they had found her brother. The smell of chocolate and ammonia was still strong in the room, but the lights were off, sending a shadow into the corner where they had found him. The Seaick angel kept his head bowed, and after a moment he leaned over to set a cup of tea next to his teammate. "Will that make you feel better?"

 _Tea wouldn't make her feel any better. It smelled like safety. And she didn't feel safe. She couldn't feel safe._

"What's that supposed to mean?" Her voice was hollow, muffled by her arms, and Hyde couldn't blame her. She had lost Agri, like he had lost Magis, and there was no way to help her with the pain as far as he knew. Telling her what he knew would destroy everything; he knew Moune.

 _She didn't want to sound so cold. She wanted comfort. But even Hyde couldn't understand. At least Magis had died without chocolate clogging his veins._

"I just meant...I'm sorry, for sounding so harsh. Looking at him like that must have been hard."

 _She wanted to keep chocolate as an innocent treat, a comfort food that she could share with her brother. But perhaps that was never meant to be._

"Harsh and damn apathetic," she muttered, shifting away from him. "Take the tea away, please."

 _Tea reminded her of Agri too. Right now, everything reminded her of him._

"Sorry," Hyde said again, and he stood to leave, doing as she told him.

 _She just wanted to scream and cry and fall into her brother's arms while he comforted her. But of course he wasn't here to do that._

Moune fell sideways onto the sofa, her eyes closed and her knees tucked tightly to her chest, and let herself sob into the cracking leather.

—{~}—

Later, in the amethyst lighting of twilight, the angels and their friends buried their comrade, the Landick way, under a tree with an unmarked gravestone.

* * *

 _We are so fragile,_  
 _And our cracking bones make noise,_  
 _And we are just_  
 _Breakable, breakable, breakable girls and boys_

— "Breakable," Ingrid Michaelson —


	12. Chapter 12: Sapphire

Sapphire

"Hyde-kun."

The blue angel's eyes snapped open, and he stood bolt upright from where he was leaning against the wall under the lamp. Magis stepped out from the shadows by the gate, and Hyde dropped into a defensive stance as he spotted his partner, who was chewing on an orange candy and grinning like the world was his. No, he told himself for what felt like the millionth time. He was a monster.

"Surprised, are you?" The monster's casual tone shocked Hyde, and his already tense body went absolutely rigid. Magis had always known exactly how to make Hyde relaxed, but he guessed that meant he also knew how to do the opposite.

Hyde gritted his teeth, forcing himself to face away from the shadow though every muscle in his body wanted to turn around and slap him across the face. No, more than that. He wanted to turn around and kill him, with every ounce of strength he had. "Agri's dead," was all he said, making his tone to stay smooth and calm. "You said to cause chaos when you told me to do this. No one was supposed to die, so how many are going to?"

The monster's tone slipped slightly, as it did quite frequently, from the familiar tone - Magis's voice - to the more monster growl that Hyde was more accustomed to with monsters. His partner's voice, though, saying this; it was unnerving for Hyde. "Damn, you are naïve. Isn't it obvious, Hyde-kun? You're a Sentai, and you prevent evil from taking over the world. And I'm a monster. Therefore I'm evil. Aren't you supposed to be the smart one? I can't believe you actually fell for this."

 _Everyone. He wants everyone gone. A fractured, broken Sentai means...everyone gone._

Hyde didn't resist any longer, spinning around to face his partner - no, it was not Magis. Magis's eyes were not the piercing silver that they were now. He couldn't believe he'd fallen for it. "You gave your word. You're giving Magis back when I do what you say. And you said -"

The monster laughed, and Hyde took a step back. "I repeat, Hyde-kun. I'm an evil monster. And I don't keep my word."

"You…" Hyde trailed off, realising how stupid he sounded. It was too late to back down, though. Before the monster could use Magis's voice any longer, he planted himself firmly where he stood. "I'm not doing this anymore," he declared, turning on his heel to head back to the observatory.

"Oh, I _know_ you will." The hand closed firmly on the collar of his jacket, pulling him back with inhuman strength and flinging him onto the ground with what must have been no effort at all. And then Hyde froze, falling back onto the ground after attempting to get up, staring as the monster, donning Magis's appearance, shifted to face him with an all too familiar gaze. Speaking to him in another, all too familiar, much more horrifying voice.

"You see, I think that if you don't do what I say, _you're_ going to end up like Agri-kun here."

 _He must have dug up Agri's body, because he'd absorbed it. He was using Agri's voice._

"So how about it? There is another thing I'd like you to do."

 _He always did things when it was Agri who asked him._

* * *

 _Sing once again with me  
_ _A strange duet  
_ _My power over you  
_ _Grows stronger yet  
_ _And though you turn from me  
_ _To glance behind  
_ _The phantom of the opera is there  
_ _Inside your mind_.

— "The Phantom of the Opera" —


	13. Chapter 13: Mercury

Mercury

Chiaki caught himself looking out the window to make sure Alata was okay again - the Skick angel was kneeling in front of the building, planting things in the garden with Eri, while Mako and Takeru sat on a bench nearby - when Hikari handed his notes to him, asking him to keep an eye on them.

Moune eyed the notes suspiciously from where she was huddled on one of the chairs at the dining room table. Chiaki tried to ignore her glare, and out of curiosity, flicked through a few of the pages. He almost wished he had the patience to go through and analyse and piece together the whole story, like Hikari, but then again he didn't. He wouldn't be as independent if he tried to do that, and Chiaki liked his ability to wander around. Ryuunosuke, who was sitting on the other side of him, was guiding his Ryuu Origami absentmindedly around the table with his index finger. He had volunteered to stay with Chiaki, Moune, and Hikari while the others took the time off, but the blue samurai looked like he was regretting that decision now. Chiaki couldn't blame him.

It had been quiet for the past few days. He had convinced Kotoha to spend time with the ToQgers on the Rainbow Line, and for how blatant it was as a distractor it seemed to work; she was happier. Mako never took a break, although Chiaki wished she would, and was busy spending time with the Reds, along with Eri. As for Hikari, he seemed to spend all his time playing detective. He was quiet, and when he did speak he often said he was getting closer, but Chiaki wanted to guess that in reality, he was still far from the truth.

There was a crashing sound in the back, and Chiaki's head snapped up, turning in the direction of the sound. The others made similar motions, and carefully, Chiaki dropped Hikari's notes back on the table.

Ryuunosuke was the first to stand and venture in the direction of the noise, and Chiaki was next, taking time to nudge Moune gently, pushing her out of the chair and directing her along.

"Hikari?" Chiaki called his name once, and the silence that responded caused Ryuunosuke in front of him to move faster - and then he stopped. Chiaki ran into him before he focused on the scene in front of him.

They should have predicted what was to come, he thought. After all, it had been _too_ quiet after Agri's death.

Chiaki, for the little time he had known Hikari, had never known him to look so tense when fighting an enemy. And for the longer time he'd known Hyde, he'd never known him to look so desperate.

Hyde's fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles were white, and as the others stumbled in behind Chiaki, it became clear what he was trying to do. It was pretty obvious anyway, with the kitchen knife in one hand and his Gosei blaster in the other. The knife was being held against Hikari's throat, the green ranger in a clumsy headlock and his eyes wide.

A cool breeze blew through the room, courtesy of the open window behind the two, but it felt hot against Chiaki's skin. So this was how it was all going to play out.

"Don't move." Hyde's voice was distinct, quiet, and he shifted the aim of his Gosei blaster at Ryuunosuke's face. "At this point, he's got to die either way."

"Shit, you have got to be kidding me," Chiaki snapped, and if Hyde could have gotten any more tense, he did.

"I can't believe it took you this long, but...it's already too late. It doesn't make a difference. Agri's already dead."

Moune, appearing quietly beside Chiaki at that very moment, seemed to hear that, and she became alert and more alive once the words had been spoken.

"So it was your fault…"

"Moune." Hyde's voice was soft, and his blaster's aim lost its steadiness as he moved it again, this time to aim it at the younger Landick. "Agri wasn't my fault, so don't do anything crazy. This is for the best."

She screeched. She screamed, so loudly, everyone in the room recoiled. "You have got to be FUCKING STUPID TO BELIEVE THAT!"

Hikari took that moment to act, taking advantage of Hyde's distraction and threw his weight to one side, twisting the knife out of the Seaick angel's grasp, wrenching himself free. The knife clattered to the floor; Hikari moved so fast he was in the doorway, wincing and rubbing his collarbone before it hit the ground.

Hyde stood there for a moment in shock, before turning and jumping up onto the open windowsill. His wings sprouted from his back, and he shook his head. "I have my reasons. I'm sorry."

Moune tugged at Chiaki's sleeve, as if telling him to start moving. Chiaki had to stare at Hyde a moment before he realised.

Hyde jumped, his wings catching air as he dropped, before he swooped into the sky, and then Moune was racing towards the window, shouting at him to come back and fight, screaming how much of a coward he was.

Ryuunosuke was the smart one, reaching for his Shodophone to call everyone else as Chiaki pulled Moune out of the room to follow Hyde.

* * *

 _I'm an angel with a shotgun  
_ _Fighting 'til the war's won  
_ _I don't care if heaven won't take me back  
_ — "Angel With A Shotgun," The Cab —


	14. Chapter 14: Steel

Steel

He ran. His feet hit the ground when his heartbeat got so fast he couldn't keep himself flying; he was breathing so hard he couldn't keep himself up in the air. He stumbled when he landed, but he ran. Oh, he ran like hell.

"You failed again, didn't you, Hyde?"

 _Oh, shit._

"Hyde." In any other situation, he would say Agri was trying to calm him down. But Agri wouldn't be doing any of this; Agri wouldn't have told him to kill anybody. And yet there he was: Agri, as if nothing had ever happened to him, body unharmed, the only difference being the steely grey shade his eyes now were. Agri, appearing suddenly in front of Hyde, catching his jacket sleeve and pulling him to a halt.

"Get away from me," Hyde got out breathlessly, trying to tug his arm free, but the monster held fast, until Hyde yanked one direction and he let go, the momentum sending the blue angel collapsing onto the gravel.

"How lame could you possibly be?" the monster grinned, using that forceful tone that Agri would have reserved for the enemy, and Hyde didn't even try to get up, instead shrinking back onto the ground.

"I give you a job that was so damn easy. You try beating five or ten of you at once, and you'll see that just one is the easiest thing in the world. And you couldn't even do that, Hyde." He made it look so easy — saying things that would never come out of Agri's mouth, and yet making them seem so natural. Like he would say them anyway.

"Hyde!" Eri's voice. Alata's. They'd all caught up to him.

The monster knelt down, gripping Hyde's jacket collar and pulling him to his feet. "It took you this long to figure it out. Although, I suppose one of you figured it out sooner. And you're looking at what happened to him."

Hyde could see the realisation dawn on his friends' faces — Hikari's, in particular; he could see the green ranger quickly putting the pieces together in his head, and he scrambled to say something, twisting himself free of the monster's grip. "Alata. Takeru. That was me; I hurt you guys. I swear I didn't touch Agri." It was his fault though. If he had been more careful, Agri wouldn't have been killed in the first place.

Moune took a step back as he said this, and Hyde could see something changing in her eyes. From shock to horror.

"I know you have to kill this monster," he continued quietly. "But I made him promise. He said...he'll bring Magis back to life."

There was a quiet laugh behind him. Agri's laugh. "Bringing a body back to life. Please." The monster shrugged, spreading his hands in front of him as he went on. "I can possess a body whenever I want. I can heal their wounds. I can reanimate them. I can let them go. I never said anything about bringing someone back to life once I let them go." A brief grin slipped onto Agri's face, and Hyde choked, suddenly unable to breathe.

It was starting to feel like forever — every moment dragging by, because the adrenaline was causing him to see every detail, even through the tears that were starting to form in his eyes. And he'd known, ever since the night they'd buried Agri, that this monster didn't care what Hyde asked him to do. Even so, the words wouldn't stop coming. "I don't even care if he's alive anymore," he said, as simply as he could. Promises wouldn't do any good now; he was resorting to desperation, and it was showing. "Just let me have Magis."

"You still think I'm going to listen to a word you say."

Hyde was shaking by now, so hard it was difficult for him to move. Somehow, he managed to face his teammates. Stumble towards them. The tears were starting to blur his vision — not running down his face yet; they stung though — but he kept going. Whatever happened now was going to happen. It would be for the best.

His eyes were sad as he reached Moune. She said nothing, but her eyes were distrustful, and she took a very small step backwards. "Agri was… I didn't kill him, Moune, but I promise...there's a way to bring him back. Try...try to bargain for him."

"You're an idiot!" Chiaki's voice pierced his ears, somewhere off to his left, and Hyde flinched. The green samurai was right, but that was the whole reason things were the way they were.

"Think of this as... This is my way to say sorry." Hyde reached out for Moune's hand — she didn't move away this time — shoving something small into her palm before returning to his position between the monster and the teams standing before him.

His bowgun shifted into view, and he heard the Seaick melody echo in the distance. He could see his teammates tense, and he wanted to tell them it was going to be okay.

"You can't destroy this monster until I see Magis again. Not some braindead imitation. So...destroy the monster. Get Agri back, okay?"

He didn't even wait for an answer. "Blue Check," he whispered, his voice finally cracking and failing him as he pulled the trigger.

The blue shots fired up — and then straight back down at their owner. Moune looked away as a flash of light signaled they had hit their target, down at what Hyde had given her: a strawberry candy, slightly melted, the wrapper stuck to itself with melted chocolate. The same type she'd found crushed into her brother's chest. She glanced back up, just in time to see Hyde fall to the ground, and her brother grinning like the world was coming to an end.

She supposed it was, for Hyde.

There was screams from over at her right. Screams of "Hyde!" and "No!" But there were shouts over on her left. "Ippitsu Soujou!" and "ToQ Change!"

Her hand was sticky with chocolate, and her Change Card felt heavy in her hands as she brandished it along with the remainder of her team. (She wanted to fight Hyde. Tell him he was stupid for doing this. But even she knew the laughing monster behind his unconscious body came first.)

"Tensou."

* * *

 _If only the clockwork could speak_  
 _I wouldn't be so alone_  
 _We burn every magnet and spring_  
 _And spiral into the unknown_

—"Shatter Me," Lindsey Stirling ft. Lzzy Hale —


	15. Chapter 15: Graphite

Graphite

He should have realised that he wouldn't have the guts to make the shot strong enough to kill himself. He remembered, once, when the Goseigers had first assembled, that the Landick siblings had called Seaicks cowardly. He'd told them he preferred the word cautious.

Cowardly seemed like a pretty good description of himself right now.

The feeling of gravel disappeared from underneath him, and when he pressed his hand against the ground, it swayed. The ground should be the one thing that is always solid, he thought, at least in practice.

This wasn't practice, idiot, he reminded himself, this was reality, and then he wasn't quite sure if it was anymore.

—{~}—

 _This had to be a dream. A memory. Hyde remembered this; he was perched on the edge of a narrow roof, half-hidden in the back of an alleyway, struggling to reach a spot of dirt on one of his wings._

 _"Hey, Hyde, you okay?"_

 _There was something different about Magis, that day._

 _The smell of hair dye was strong in the air when Magis appeared, mingled with the scent of chocolate - and that was no surprise. Hyde looked up, to see his partner land next to him on the ledge, and lean down to help clean the dirt off his wings._

 _"You dyed your hair," Hyde said, folding his wings as Magis finished, and the green Seaick hopped down to sit next to him. It was true. Though the difference was subtle, Magis's hair had gone from a chocolate brown to jet black. It was noticeable enough for Hyde to stare at his partner's head like he'd just lost it._

—{~}—

Hikari hadn't known Hyde for very long at all. Had only just met him not too long before they'd both gotten tangled up in this whole mess, and it was really only thanks to Agri that he knew his name at all beforehand.

His friends had been shockingly quiet when Hyde had faced his own teammates; they'd rushed in out of nowhere off the Ressha, but they'd stopped when they'd seen the situation; even Tokatti had frozen in place, not even reaching up to adjust his glasses.

But then the monster had summoned minions - strange, green creatures that the Goseigers seemed to be accustomed to, and very unlike the Kuros he was used to. They seemed to serve the same purpose though, to shield the monster from him, and to practically throw themselves under his blows as he fought his way towards the monster.

And now, everything was loud. Everyone was loud. And everyone was fighting. Mio and Right had already swapped Resshas, and Kagura and Tokatti were back to back, leaving only Hikari.

He wasn't quite sure he understood Hyde, and he wasn't sure he was ever going to. Blue was never his favourite colour in transfer changes, and maybe he didn't get along with Hyde because he never got along with Blue Rangers the way he did with other colours. Maybe it was because Hyde was old, as Moune put it; Hikari always had a hard time understanding older members of Sentai. Maybe it was the amount of emotion Hyde put behind his betrayal - his dedication to Magis.

Although Hikari thought he could understand that. He liked his friends too. Made his traveling on the Ressha a little less lonely. It was a logical assumption. (There was a shout as he came to this conclusion: Right, calling for another transfer change.)

They were both the rational ones of their teams, and Hikari decided he could see the logic behind Hyde's betrayal.

And even though logic wasn't everything, just this once, Hikari decided as he caught Tokatti's mini Ressha, sliding it into his brace and readying for the transfer to blue, he could try and forgive Hyde for trying to kill him. He'd try to see things Hyde's way.

—{~}—

 _Hyde liked this memory, although he didn't remember feeling happy that day. It was one of the few that stood out to him; one of the few that he remembered where they hadn't met by the sea._

 _"What difference does the colour of my hair make? Relax. I'm still me." Magis reached up to stretch, shaking his wings out, and Hyde leaned away to avoid touching them._

 _"Says you. You're probably used to it. I mean, if I dyed my hair blond, you'd look at me funny at first, right?"_

 _Magis shrugged, turning away to search his pockets for chocolate. "Nah. I wouldn't. You'd still be you. Besides, you couldn't dye your hair blond if you tried."_

 _"I could too!" Hyde ruffled his wings, slightly indignant._

 _"Sure. Do it tomorrow. Otherwise…" Coming up empty handed, no chocolate in sight, Magis grinned, and Hyde knew what was coming before he even said it. "You're getting me more chocolate."_

—{~}—

Chiaki had always thought of Hyde as the quiet one. The mysterious one in the background who didn't want to be noticed. He supposed that would be the reason why he never understood the Seaick — and he still didn't, even after considering why he would defend Magis, whoever that was.

Seeing Hyde, standing in front of them, confessing, Chiaki didn't regret calling him an idiot. Because he was. Knowing those angels, and how they worked together, there was absolutely no reason for Hyde to even consider betraying the Goseigers.

But there was also much he didn't know about Hyde.

He wasn't sure quite why they were defending Hyde either. Because he had betrayed them, had tried to kill Hikari. Had defended that monster. Half of Chiaki's brain - the half that actually paid attention to Jii's constant lecturing about the samurai way - was telling him rather loudly that his energy was better needed elsewhere, instead of defending someone who couldn't be trusted. He could be helping his own teammates, who were slightly apart from him — that's what his brain was telling him.

He was busy trying to charge the monster that had Hyde had tried to defend when he noticed. He might not understand GoseiBlue, but his teammates did, and it was evident in their fighting style: the three remaining Goseigers were purposefully positioned, surrounding Hyde's unconscious form, and Agri's dead one, and fighting with all they had.

He'd killed one of his own teammates, and yet they still defended him.

Chiaki could understand defending a teammate who supposedly had no honor, no purpose, no want for life. He could understand the Goseigers.

He pulled out his Shodophone to cast a Mojikara symbol into the air in front of him. He may not like defending Hyde, but he'd defend the people defending him, whether he wanted to or not.

—{~}—

 _Hyde still liked that memory, even if he'd lost the bet. Even if he'd never gotten to give Magis the chocolate. Because that was the last normal conversation they'd ever had; not a day later, Magis had fallen from the cliff fighting; he'd fallen to save Hyde._

 _Hyde decided he'd pay Magis back somehow. If not with chocolate, he'd get his partner's body back. Give him a proper burial. But the monster hadn't released Magis' body, like he'd promised._

—{~}—

Besides her own brother, Hyde was the Goseiger she'd known the longest. Even before the Skicks had come down to Earth, she'd seen Hyde, from a distance while she trained with her brother, often heading towards the sea. She'd known he was a Goseiger. Just from the way he carried himself, not just because of his Tensouder - that detail had come later. Moune wasn't quite sure what had made her trust the Seaick so much when she met him initially; everything he'd said was so...clear, and easy to follow. And when the team had assembled, he was always so careful not to let plans go wrong.

This time, things had gone wrong. Terribly wrong.

She wasn't sure of the whole story, what had happened between Hyde and this monster who had killed her brother, but she was sure of one thing:

Her brother's death was Hyde's fault, and she would never forgive him for that.

But Alata and Eri were still fighting; she had already come to the conclusion that she would fight with them.

She'd fight to protect her brother's body, if nothing else. And she'd give him another burial later, if it came to that.

She wasn't defending Hyde, she told herself. She wasn't defending him so he could betray them again. No, he'd learned what he'd done wrong. She wasn't defending him because she agreed with his betrayal. Not at all; it had cost her her brother.

She was defending Hyde so she could yell at him and tell him he was stupid later. So she could forgive him for being stupid in her own way. And so he could apologize properly.

She didn't want an incomplete ending.

—{~}—

 _He wasn't quite sure why he had chosen this memory to see. He wasn't quite sure why he was seeing anything at all either._

 _But he'd seen Magis. Not some braindead imitation. He was happy with that, and he was ready for whatever was going to happen. Because it would be for the best._

 _And through his delirium, his eyes snapped open, just as the battle exploded._

* * *

 _I'm in a shallow hole, not filled with the humming orange bubbles of my hallucination but with old, dead leaves._

— The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins —


	16. Chapter 16: Diamond

Diamond

Eri was the first to notice Hyde's wide-open eyes, and then Alata did too. Moune followed shortly after, when Eri had appeared at his side, trying to help him to his feet.

"Get up, Hyde!"

Hyde wasn't sure if Eri really said what he heard, because he was still dizzy as he followed her instructions. Her Skick Shot was held out in front of her, defending both of them as she gripped his arm, steadying him.

A haze had settled over the battle, and Hyde took a moment to come to his senses. His teammates were managing to hold the monster off, somehow; he could see others fighting Biibiis in the background. Moune jumped in front of him as his attention snapped back to the monster, and Alata came up from behind, slashing with his sword to try and gain its attention.

"If you won't hold back with me looking like this, I have no need for him anymore..." There was a glint in the monster's eyes — it was the look that Agri had when he and Moune got into mischief; it felt plain wrong in this situation — as he dodged the blade, and then, as Alata joined Eri in supporting Hyde, they weren't Agri's eyes anymore. Agri was collapsed at Magis's feet. It was Magis who stepped towards them.

"But you will hold back with me, won't you, Hyde-kun? You still believe there's a way for you to bring me back?"

Hyde pulled himself free of the Skicks' support, falling back in alarm as the monster reached for him. (He really did know how to strike close to home, Hyde reminded himself, and he found himself gripping the Shark Header.) Gritting his teeth, he felt the other rangers at his shoulders, already aiming their blasters, and he attached the Shark Headder. "You aren't Magis."

The monster just stood there and laughed as Hyde gripped the handle of the blaster, aiming steadily. He would not miss, he would not miss, _he would not_ —

It happened so fast, Hyde wasn't really sure why the monster had done it. The monster — he'd stepped forward again, right up to Hyde so the barrel of the blaster was point-blank against his chest. He'd spread his hands in a calming, peaceful gesture, and said, "You want Agri-kun's body too, right? Why only Magis?"

Hyde hesitated as he saw his partner's face, grinning at him.

"You're going to destroy your partner's body. Bet you can't do it, Hyde-kun."

Hyde pulled the trigger. "Shark Bullet."

The blasts of light hit the monster all at once, and stumbling back, Hyde swore he'd never seen an explosion so black.

Black.

 _Agri_.

The monster hadn't said he was made from Magis. He said he'd absorbed his body, his spirit. His mind. He'd absorbed Agri's body the same way. And if he'd learned anything from blowing up endless other monsters, it was that monsters' attacks were usually reversed when they were destroyed. Which could just mean...

The smoke cleared, swirling calmly at first, and then faster, almost as if struggling to form a body again, but the result was a whirling storm cloud where they had just been standing, over where Agri's body was.

Hyde sprinted forward before anyone could stop him, forcing his way into the cloud.

There was still only one body lying there, to his disappointment. And it wasn't Magis.

He managed to make it all the way to where Agri's body still lay, and fell to his knees, clutching at the Landick angel's jacket and trying to shield him from the dark cloud that descended back upon them. Like it was trying to reenter Agri's body.

(Agri was dead. But he had to be alive.)

"Come on…"

Hyde forced his Gosei Power into his hands — he could feel a surge of it through his veins. Lacing his fingers with Agri's, he imagined power flooding through the cold body of the Landick. Every power that every Sentai had; every one that he could draw from at this moment. Imagination, Mojikara, Gosei Power. He envisioned the image of the forbidden Tensou technique, End. He wasn't planning on using any formal techniques, but the explosion from the monster, still surrounding them, had this _feeling_ to it, like if he tapped into some power, he could bring Agri _back to life_ —

The darkness seemed to clear slightly; he could see the silhouettes of his teammates through the smoke. There was another surge of power, seeping through his skin, and then just numbing cold, lingering.

That was all Hyde could remember. There was no pain as he went unconscious again — not the pain of being hit by the shots from his own weapon, not the pain of Magis's voice coming from a monster, not the pain of everything he'd put everyone through, not even the pain of Agri's hand tightening around his own. Nothing at all. He just blacked out.

* * *

 _There's nothing you could say  
Nothing you could do  
There's no other way when it comes to the truth  
So keep holding on..._

 _— "_ Keep Holding On," Avril Lavigne _—_


	17. Chapter 17: Sugar

_AN: I got a lot of writing done this past week while on vacation, so two chapters in short succession. It also just so happens that this is the final chapter of Chocolate. For all its (really big, unedited) flaws, this is the first multi-chapter fanfic I've ever completed and I really wasn't expecting to do so. Thanks to everyone who's stuck with it, and thanks to everyone who will continue to read. Hope you enjoy._

Sugar

"Hyde, you okay?"

God, that phrase again. _You okay?_ No. He was never going to be okay. But the rough shaking that the others gave him forced his eyes open, in spite of his best attempts to keep them closed.

He was met with mixed reactions, from sighs of relief to outright laughing. "Hyde's awake!"

The words echoed the ones shouted when Alata had recovered, and Hyde couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. They were _happy_ to see him, despite everything that had happened.

"Hyde."

There was a voice he'd never expected to hear again.

Hands grasped his shoulders, pulling him into a sitting position; a wave of dizziness overcame him for a moment, and he shook his head, struggling to make sense of what he was seeing.

Because Agri was standing in front of him. Agri was offering a hand to him, and Agri was there. Alive.

"You're...back." Hyde tried to speak, managing to get out the simple sentence, but his voice was hoarse and his throat was dry, the only taste that lingered being a sweet taste - plain sugar, he decided; it was missing the chocolate flavour he was so used to.

Agri laughed, shrugging. "Dunno how you did it, Hyde, but...yeah. I'm back."

Hyde knew. Channelling the energy from the explosion, using his own Gosei power to transfer it to Agri, to put it analytically. It was a plan he'd come up with in the spur of the moment; he'd hoped it would work, and it had… But explaining it to Agri wouldn't do any good. Because all that mattered was that he wasn't some imitation, and he was alive. He was definitely alive.

Agri knelt in front of Hyde, offering a hand to help the Seaick to his feet. Hyde gripped his sleeve, avoiding the Landick's gaze as he pulled himself to his feet. "Thanks," he murmured, stumbling slightly, and Agri gripped his arm to keep him from falling.

"Thanks for bringing me back to life." Agri said it so casually, Hyde couldn't help but smile.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the others - the Shinkengers, the ToQgers - standing off to the side, watching the angels. He could see Chiaki, fiddling with his Shodophone and pretending to be interested in it, and Hikari tucking his notebook into his pocket.

"Anytime." It was the only answer Hyde could think of, and this time, behind him, he could hear Moune suppress a laugh with a, "Nice one, old man."

Alata grinned, jumping up to try and pat Hyde on the head, and Eri called over to the other teams to join them. When Hyde tried to dodge the crowd surrounding him, the result was his friends crowding around him to pull him back in the direction of the observatory.

"Let's go home, Hyde."

(He wanted to try dying his hair blond, he would say later, as they were all crowded onto the sofas, laughing and exhausted.)

* * *

 _Sabishii toki wa  
Sora wo miagete  
Hikari no shawaa uketomete  
Yuuki no tsubasa wo hirogete  
Tensou Sentai Goseiger_

— "Tensou Sentai Goseiger," NoB, Project.R —

 _When in lonely times  
_ _Turn your gaze to the sky  
_ _And receive the shower of light  
_ _Spread those wings of courage  
_ _Tensou Sentai Goseiger_


End file.
